Wednesday, November 27, 2024
Military personnel at Wellington Barracks to cover ambulance driving duties 21.12.2022 CREDIT MOD Crown Copyright
Military personnel at Wellington Barracks to cover ambulance driving duties 21122022 CREDIT MOD Crown Copyright

Military Trade Unions, Strike Breaking ... and Brussels!

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Forces personnel news
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Unions. Strikes. And Brussels. Uncontroversial as always ...

When forces personnel were being lined up to provide strike cover over the festive season, British Armed Forces Federation (BAFF) unsurprisingly received a number of media enquries, but this time we didn't say anything more than a few posts on social media.

For example, following a prominent MP's criticism of remarks by CDS that that the military was 'busy' and should not be the 'go-to' to fill gaps, BAFF tweeted on 19 Dec 2022 that Adm Radakin's comments were:

right and appropriate. Defence does what it's told within the limits of the law, but it's busy, and busy or not, it [the use of the military during strike action in essential public services] must be a last resort.

Now a member has brought to our attention a troubling tweet by the European Organisation of Military Associations and Trade Unions ('EUROMIL') on their official Twitter account -

About EUROMIL

EUROMIL is a long-established non-governmental umbrella organisation, headquarted originally in Bonn and now in Schaerbeek, Brussels. Both UK MOD and ourselves have in the past provided speakers for EUROMIL study events. BAFF in its early days was grateful for assistance and encouragement by EUROMIL, which granted us Observer status with their organisation for two years.

Our first chairman played an active part in the EUROMIL delegation to a Council of Europe working party on the Human Rights of Armed Forces Personnel, and we were represented at several EUROMIL "Presidium" meetings (at the private expense of the delegates concerned).

Our founding members were grateful for excellent working relationships and friendship with EUROMIL members in countries such as Denmark, Ireland, Poland and France (to name but a few). Although the EUROMIL organisation's vocabulary was at times unsurprisingly more 'European' and 'social' than our own, the practical aims and concerns of our counterparts were remarkably similar to ours.

So it was with some regret that at the end of our time as Observers, BAFF didn't immediately apply for full EUROMIL membership.

It was always intended to revisit that option in due course.

'The European Organisation of Military Associations' later added 'and Trade Unions' to its title. That probably wouldn't have been a showstopper if BAFF had been a EUROMIL member at the time, since their membership already included associations registered as trade unions under the laws of their respective countries, without any question of their going on strike.

The subsequent UK referendum decision to leave the European Union inevitably reduced the relevance to UK personnel of some EUROMIL interests, but EUROMIL's focus also includes NATO and the Council of Europe. Many real-world personnel concerns remain common concerns.

EUROMIL: UK 'medical workers rightly go on strike'

But now the EUROMIL HQ in Brussels has found it appropriate, in the quoted tweet, to commend industrial action by medical workers in this country:

Medical workers rightly go on #strike in the #UK.

It isn't clear by what criteria EUROMIL reached their assessment of current UK pay claims, or of the case for strike action.

For our part, members will have a range of personal views, certainly including sympathy for NHS workers and others, and undoubtedly hoping for the earliest possible satisfactory outcome.

Some of our reservist and veteran members are themselves NHS workers, and some are bound to be members of relevant unions in their civilian capacities. There are also regular armed forces medical and nursing staff working in NHS facilities alongside their civilian counterparts.

But BAFF as an organisation wouldn't be expressing an opinion either for, or against, strike action in these sectors.

That shouldn't be seen as opposition to the trade union movement. A BAFF Steering Group member back in the day made an 'extremely useful' visit to GCHQ Cheltenham to see their branch of the PCS Union working successfully and constructively in a national security environment, and we also had a good look at the Police Federation of England and Wales which is not, of course, a trade union. As we made clear in 2011:

Following several surveys and the BAFF Steering Group's consultations with personnel about the form of a BAFF Constitution, BAFF has always taken the position that traditional trade union status would not be the right format for a body representing British armed forces personnel.

That doesn't mean that BAFF is opposed to the existence of trade unions within the public service. Anyway, such opposition would be a political position beyond our remit.

EUROMIL: UK 'soldiers should not be used for breaking strikes!'

EUROMIL's tweet also finds 'unacceptable' the use of service personnel to help maintain essential public services in the United Kingdom:

It is unacceptable that #military #personnel who do not have effective #union rights now have to step in and take over some of the tasks. Soldiers should not be used for breaking strikes! 

Most in the UK would probably agree that the use of defence personnel in such circumstances should be a last resort  - as should industrial action itself. That principle seems, indeed, to have been the position of successive UK postwar governments of any party. For their part the unions appear to have played that question sensibly. The EUROMIL tweet tagged @unitetheunion, but we have seen no evidence of it having been prompted by any UK organisation.

No major UK parliamentary party appears to be opposed in principle to the use of armed forces personnel, in any circumstances, to maintain a level of essential service during industrial action. Not only the UK Government (in its Defence and NHS England roles), but also the devolved administrations for Scotland and Wales, and Health and Social Care Northern Ireland, were all prepared to have armed forces personnel deployed for limited tasks supporting health services in the recent period.

Such deployments come under MACA (Military Aid to the civil authorities) which is part of the defence contribution to national resilience.

European Convention on Human Rights

The position of successive UK governments and devolved administrations on this matter is surely compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights, specifically the most fundamental human right of all, Right to Life as enshrined in ECHR Article 2.

The use of military personnel in such circumstances doesn't breach the rights of striking workers under the Convention's Article 10, Freedom of Expression, or Article 11, Freedom of Assembly and Association.

EUROMIL HQ Brussels, however, lectures that no assistance should be given by British forces personnel to help maintain a minimum level of lifesaving cover in these islands.

The use of forces personnel (if available) to maintain essential services during industrial action is certainly to be avoided as much as possible, and kept to a minimum duration when it does happen.

While efforts are rightly made on all sides to avoid ill will between forces personnel and striking workers, it is not forgotten how thousands of forces personnel were diverted away from training and from Christmas with their families in the run up to the 2003 Iraq War, to help maintain emergency cover (Op FRESCO) during firefighters' industrial action.

But all that is a long way from the official EUROMIL HQ position that such use of UK defence personnel should never happen.

No connection with BAFF

Whatever the intention, either of the EUROMIL propositions above would have been unhelpful, and potentially damaging to the campaign for recognised representative arrangements for UK forces personnel, if BAFF had in fact become a member of that organisation.

Their second proposition, that defence personnel mustn't be used to support emergency services during strike action, is in our view hard to reconcile with the European Convention on Human Rights.

So we are happy to confirm that despite our friendly past contacts and continued goodwill towards EUROMIL member associations, their Brussels HQ's pronouncements on these matters have no connection with British Armed Forces Federation (BAFF).

Related

Article edited to mention BAFF Twitter thread of 19.12.2022, and to say more about the ECHR aspect.

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